My "celebration" for the fourth of July will be a work day, followed by a night with the parents. Not looking forward to that.

My fifth of July will be the day I sign a house over, and get into a 30 year loan. I think that'll be worth celebrating. Hopefully a detour to SC will get me some real celebration worthy bang...

As to the games, there are many good and bad moments. My hatred, and admiration can be boiled down into two categories though.

Bullet-time done right. 1 and 2 were the first games that made the mechanic feel right, and I'm told 3 does too. Looking forward to seeing that some day.

Blood trails that are dark f*****g maroon on a black background. Nothing quite like a near endgame scenario, where you keep dying because a 90 degree turn and leap of faith are what the game actually wanted from you. On top of this, even once you "cheat" and set the color pallet and contrast high enough to tell where the lines are the loose motor controls still took my life more often than I would care to admit.

Please put me in the pot for Max Payne 3! I loved MP 1 and 2. I still have my MP 1 big box and the sweet mouse pad. I am a big fan of the series and the movie Max Payne. In my opinion, Bullet Time has been revolutionary in gaming as Max Payne was the first time I recall seing any thing/effects like it.

4th of July, I will be celebrating it with some cold beers and Battlefield 3 on my PC, taking part in the 2XP.